


Shelter from the Storm

by verus_janus (Methleigh)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-23
Updated: 2012-05-23
Packaged: 2017-11-05 20:58:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/410948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Methleigh/pseuds/verus_janus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a Scottish hillside, Severus remembers his friends with physical metaphor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shelter from the Storm

Severus stood on the hill, looking back at Hogwarts, the big tree behind him. The wind blew his cloak around him, the points flying and twitching out in front of him, while he stood warm behind the cloak's shelter. His back provided a windbreak. His hair whipped out before him, snapping, but again, it too protected his face. His skull provided a windbreak.

He turned into the wind. And the leaves, torn from the tree, whirled by him, tossed and lost, irretrievable. Regulus. Lily. Evan.

He spread his cloak, desperately trying to catch a few. He could catch them in his cloak and turn, protect them as well. Those in Azkaban had been torn from the tree. It was now winter - the winter of the year, the winter of his life. But his imprisoned friends were not yet lost, not yet dead. He could shelter them, protect them, save them. Rabastan. Antonin. Rodolphus. Barty. Igor.

He spun and danced, his expression determined, facing the wind that now stung his eyes and made them water, that dried and froze his face. Some few leaves caught. He folded them close against himself, wrapped in his cloak. Again he walked up the hill to Hogwarts, his windbreak, his shelter from the cruel wind of the ironic witch-hunts of the Ministry of Magic.

Back in his new rooms he pressed these few leaves safe in his old copy of Hogwarts: A History. And sometimes he opened it, to touch them tenderly, naming his friends, sending the protection of his love. They were not forgotten.


End file.
